BORN IN THE MARIAN YEAR!

I often walk along a road near the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Wall. It is a pleasure to look at the building on the corner, when I wait for the traffic light to turn green  at a road crossing. There is a painting  on the wall of the building. Our Lady carrys the Infant Jesus.  It is also written proudly in the Marian Year 1954.The  building is renovated and kept well. It doesn’t look as old as me.

Born in the Marian year!

My aunt Phil told me that for two years Luke and Maggie, my parents, did not have a child. Then I was born. The first born. The only son.I was born in the Marian year!

I was born a few years after a wide spread heresy was developed in the Catholic Church. I grew up with priest friends telling me Fr.Leonard Feeney was excommunicated for heresy. Later I realized this was not true. Later they told me that those in invincible ignorance and the baptism of desire were exceptions to the dogma. Only a few years back I realised that this was not true.

The rosary is still my staple prayer. I repeat it often. It’s a prayer anchor when I am busy with many things. It s an aid to contemplation when there are no words but just loving attention.

Devotion to Our Lady was strong since I was a young. I remember joining my grandmother and aunt in praying the evening rosary, repeating during the Litany of Loreto "prayperus, prayperus". Later as I grew up I learnt there was no such word.

Some 15 or 20 years back I read the book True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis Marie di Montfort .I made the consecration. A few years back with a Legion of Mary group in a parish  in Rome I browsed through the Italian version of the book.

In the consecration I pledged that all that I do and have I offer it to Jesus through Our Lady. Al that I have and do I offer it to Our Lady to do with it as she wishes.I invited Her into my heart and then with Her pure heart I invited Jesus.

I did all that and lived over the years with a strong devotion and love for Our Lady, not knowing, that I was born in the Marian Year !!.

Lionel Andrades